Back in Canada and semi-coherent now after a couple days of rest, though I am developing a head cold after an entire day of breathing in airplane air. Damn, I hope this isn't going to turn into a "thing"... Me getting sick every time I travel. :-/

But anyway, the trip was great. It was really nice to get away for a couple of days. Wish I could've stayed longer... *sigh* ;-)

And now it's travel diary time!

Day 1:

Woke up early for the 4-hour long drive it took to reach the airport. That was an unpleasant day, as I was so nerved-up about flying that I barely ate anything. Took a direct flight and ended up at LaGuardia at about 12:30 New York time, but then had to wait in a ridiculously long line to book a Super Shuttle to take me to the hotel. I stayed at the Milford Plaza on 7th avenue. Nice hotel, better than I thought it'd be considering the types of reviews it got on TripAdvisor.

Didn't do much of anything that afternoon. I found the nearest restaurant and scarfed down some food, and then asked someone on the street how to et to Times Square. Turns out it was only a 3 minute walk from my hotel.

Times Square was awesome! Complete and utter eye candy, and very busy. A good portion of it had been converted to pedestrian areas, so there were chairs and tables everywhere for people to sit and look at the flashy signs. There were also musicians and street performers out and about.

At about 7 PM I had to go back to the hotel to meet up with my Contiki group, but that didn't really happen because our tour manager was still on an airplane. This would be a sign of things to come, as she was generally late and disorganized for every other thing that happened on out tour.

We were all pretty hungry at that point, so we walked down Restaurant Row and found a cool little bar called Joshua Tree to grab a bite to eat. Some people stayed for karaoke after, but I was tired so I went back tot hotel for sleep.

Day 2:

Woke up at 6:30 for an early-morning meeting. The tour guide couldn't figure out where our coach was, so we ended up leaving a half-hour late on the guided tour. Once we got going, we were driven all over Manhattan. We only made two stops where we could get off the bus: once at a Gothic-style church (that is apparently significant), and then again at an atrium overlooking Ground Zero. After that we were dropped off for an hour to get lunch at a deli (where the server was an asshole, but the food was good). Me and two other girls walked down to Century 21 for shopping, but it was so crazy in there that I got separated from them. Headed back to the designated meeting place, and had enough time left that I could go into a church that has significant ties to 9/11. There were a couple shrines set up to honor victims.

After that, we took a ferry over to the Statue of Liberty, but we could only stay there for a half hour because the bus driver needed to leave soon. So basically, I had enough time to walk over to the Statue, snap some pictures, walk back, go in the gift shop quickly, and then get back on the ferry. I didn't find it so bad, because really.... do you need more time than that to stare at a giant statue? But other people were pretty pissed.

So after returning to the hotel, I used the hour of free time I had before the mandatory meeting that night and got directions for Macy's at Herald's Square. The subway was really interesting, and not really that hard to used after someone's shown you the basics. There were singers and people playing home-made drum sets, but it was always warm and smelly down there.

Once at Macy's, I bought a mini pochette from the Louis Vuitton store there. (I finally got to do something that I had PLANNED on doing.) Yay! Then I had to hurry back to the hotel and get ready for the meeting (to pay for our optional activities) and the included dinner. We took the subway and then walked for about 5 minutes to a restaurant. If I knew what kind of food we would be served, I would've just skipped dinner and bought myself some take-out instead. I wasted two good hours on fries, dry chicken, and an ice cream bar. *thumbs down*

Afterwards, we went down to Times Square for a group photo, which I opted not to buy (Why would I want to spend $17 on a pic of people I didn't know?), and then I headed back to the hotel to print off direction maps so that I would be prepared to hit all the places I wanted to see on my free day.

Day 3:

Since I only signed up for one Optional Activity (a helicopter ride), this was a free day for me. Woke up early and walked down to the Applebee's in Times Square for my included breakfast (which was crap, btw). Then I took the subway down to Canal Street for some illegal knock-off purse shopping.

I must've went into about 5 back rooms looking for Louis Vuitton knock-offs (for my co-worker), but all anybody had were Chanel or Coach. I bought a pair of Chanel sunglasses for myself and a heart-shaped Chanel purse for my sister, but I was beginning to think that I wouldn't be able to find an LV bag. But then (and at this point, I think word had spread on the street to watch out for a girl in red looking for an LV), I got approached by a woman, who led me to another woman, who then led me on a wild goose chase down a couple of blocks, until finally leading me over to a van. (Holy. Crap.)

So she opened the van door and beckoned me inside. I got in, hoping that there wasn't someone else in there that was going to drive off with me in it. The van was filled with purses. There was barely enough room for us to move in. She showed me a couple of purses, and I picked one I wanted. I half-heartedly tried to barter with her, but I was stuck in a van with her, so I didn't feel much like pressing the matter.

After that, I took the subway to the next stop over: the Brooklyn Bridge. It was really bright out so I was glad I'd bought the sunglasses. I felt very conspicuous walking around with a giant garbage bag that held illegal items though, hehe. The bridge was awesome, and I stopped under the arches to get out of the sun for a while. I really regret not bringing sun screen with me; I got sooo burnt. Didn't end up walking across the whole length of the bridge, as I was quite thirsty and tired at that point. So I tuned around and went back to the subway with the intention of going back to the hotel, but I ended up getting on the wrong train and wound up in Grand Central Station. Talk about happy accidents!

After finally making it back to the hotel, I grabbed some food and water, and then took the subway up to 60th street & 5th avenue and ogled at the ridiculously expensive shops. Went into the Apple store, the Louis Vuitton flagship store, Trump Tower, and the Disney Store. There's also a couple of really beautiful churches there, and I took the time to go into St. Patrick's Cathedral. (Woooooow. Beautiful architecture.)

At that point I had to head back the hotel to freshen up and collect my tickets from the front desk to the broadway show Wicked. And can I just say.... Wicked was wicked! Best thing I ever saw in my life, and I wish I'd had enough money to see another show on broadway while I was there, because I was just blown away by the singing and the set design.

Day 4:

Since I'd been so busy the day before, I decided that this day was going to be low-key. Went and had another crappy breakfast at Applebee's, and then I headed over to 5th avenue to try and find the MOMA (Museum of Modern Art). I got to skip the line because I had purchases an NYC Explorer Pass online (which gave me access to 3 attractions of my choice), and I guess it gave me a bit of a discount too. I spent a couple of hours there taking in all the amazing pieces of art that I'd learned about during my 4 years of forced art history lessons at art school. There were some really beautiful Picasso paintings in there I'd never seen before, as well as works by Pollock and Warhol.

Afterwards, I had a little bit of trouble finding the correct location of the heliport, as my tour manager had neglected to tell us which company we'd be doing the ride through (There were like, three companies in a row down there) It turned out that we flew with Liberty Tours..... Y'know, the company whose helicopter crashed into the Hudson about two weeks ago.

Yeah.... If I had to do it over again, I wouldn't have gone on the helicopter ride. For over $100 I only got 10 minutes in the air, and let me tell you those 10 minutes were terrifying. You'll never see me in a helicopter again, no sir. Granted, I think I paid a little too much attention to the air traffic controllers with my headset, but even then it was unsettling.

After the flight, we all met back at the hotel for a mandatory meeting, during which we filled out a questionnaire and could give the tour manager tips if we wanted to. Here's a tip for managers: Don't expect one. Honestly, I've never experienced such rudeness concerning tipping than I have during this trip. It's like everyone's got a hand out toward you wanting your money in exchange for good service. Pfft, whatever. I've spent enough money already, thankyouverymuch. "Tipping makes the world go `round" is dumb.

But anyway, there was another included dinner set for that evening, but I told the manager I wasn't going because I had stuff I still needed to do (namely, using up the last two activities on my Explorer Pass). She gave me a ticket to the Empire State Building, so I could meet up with the tour later if I wanted, and then I was on my own.

Went to Madame Tussaud's wax museum in Times Square for a couple of hours. That was really cool. The figures are so lifelike, that if some of the visitors stopped for a second to look at the figures I had a hard time figuring out who was alive or not. Got my picture taken with Oprah, the Spice Girls, Jonny Depp, and other celebrity statues.

Afterwards, I was planning on using my Explorer Pass on going to Ripley's Believe It Or Not, but it was getting close to 9 PM, so I figured I'd head over to the Empire State Building to meet up wit my tour. Took the subway down to Herald's Square, and while I was there I stopped in a Macy's quickly to see if I could get a box for the Louis Vuitton purse I'd gotten a few days ago. I didn't see any of the legendary snottiness that LV sales associates are known for, because the associate that I spoke to was very helpful and got a box for me, no questions asked. Too cool!

So I walked down to the Empire State Building, and got through the line area fairly quickly (as there was no line to speak of, really). Got all the way up to the elevator that would take me up to the observatory, and... it was raining in the elevators. Like, full downpour. I kid you not.

So they ended up closing the place down and I was given a (useless) day pass for the next day. I was bummed out for a second until I realized that I could use my Explorer Pass to get into the Top of the Rock Observatory at the Rockefeller Center. Yay!

So I jumped on a subway and headed over there. And I'm kind of glad, really, because I'd been wanting to go there all along but my roommate had talked me out of it because someone had told her "The Empire State Building blocks the view." Pfft, whatever, the 360 degree view in the open-air deck was amazing, and the light show in the elevator was cool.

I got back to the hotel at about 1 AM and stayed up watching TV and packing. Bye bye, New York. I had fun.

Day 5:

This day consisted of airports, airplanes, and sleep, and did not really exist in my opinion.


Videos:

At the hotel

Times Square

Ripley's Believe It Or Not (free show)

At Ground Zero

Statue of Liberty

The Subway System

5th Avenue

Helicopter Ride

Top of the Rock, Rockefeller Center

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Rezuri,

Hey! do you reckon we could use your recap of your NY trip on our blog - mytraveladventure.com.au?

Hit me up - chris@thinkfresh.net.au

Cheers

Chris